February 3, 2006 Nielsen Kellerman is a technology company that focuses on providing critical information to athletes, but almost as a by-product, has created machines which are now used in hundreds of non-athletic pursuits. The idea for the company’s first product came 30 years ago when Richard Kellerman watched a rowing crew hit a bridge during a regatta because the coxswain was overwhelmed. The amplifier/stroke meter/timer device he visualised that day to simplify the coxswain’s job, subsequently created the company and has spawned many devices now used by rowing crews around the world. Virtually every shell at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games carried NK equipment and continues to evolve, with the upcoming launch of the Speedcoach XL, an in-boat performance monitor that wirelessly transmits individual crew heart rates, speed/split, stroke rate, etcetera to a coaching launch. A decade ago, the company developed a new wind and weather instrument, called the Kestrel Pocket Wind Meter. The product developed into a range, where the flagship product is now the Kestrel 4000 Pocket Weather Tracker which reads, logs and charts Barometric Pressure, Altitude, Density Altitude, Temperature, Humidity, Wind Speed, Wind Chill, Dew Point, Wet Bulb, and Heat Index... in one pocket-sized US$329 instrument. It should be no surprise that the 4000 is being used by the military, firefighters, adventurers, scientists and the 2006 U.S. Biathlon Team will use it to gain a competitive advantage in this year's Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.